The present invention relates to improvements over a programmable channel selecting apparatus used in a television receiver, a radio receiver, a video tape recorder with a television tuner or the like.
In the conventional VTR for home use, when a specific channel is subjected to an automatic video or picture recording at a preset or preselected item (this operation will be referred simply to automatic video recording), the tuner is previously set to the specific station and the time the video recording starts is preset by a timer. With this presetting, a power source is automatically turned on to effect the video recording.
There has recently been marketed a long-playing video tape recorder with a recording/playback time as long as 2 or 4 hours. The programmable timer function of the improved recent VTR is not satisfactory with one time or ON/OFF control. Several times of ON/OFF control are needed for the recent one. Another trend for the recent VTR is a subsequent preselection of a plurality of channels, not a single one, in automatic picture recording. Also desirable is that another channel can be preselected while a specific channel has been selected and held for automatic video recording or while a specific channel has manually been selected and held. One of the simplest systems for satisfying these desires, being considered as much as possible at the present, in which, while the channel selected content being held in a tuner is unchanged as it is, another channel is preselected, is such that a channel selection switch and a channel preselection switch are separately provided together with the corresponding channel indicators. Such two channel-selection systems including channel selection switches and channel indicators, provided in a single VTR set is troublesome when a user operates it, leading to hindrance of smooth operation and erroneous operation. Particularly in the case of home-use VTRs, needed are simple operation and no special skill for VTR operation.